Star Wars Battlefront Tweak Guide

[Page 7] Advanced Tweaks

Aside from the in-game settings, most games provide a range of additional settings which can be changed to alter performance and provide access to undocumented features. These are usually done through a game console, or located in .ini, .cfg or .con files in the game's directories. However in the case of Star Wars Battlefront unfortunately the tweaking potential is limited. There is no working console, and the available .ini files are primarily for resolution-related changes and dedicated server setup.

However, I have managed to research a few advanced tweaks I will share in this section, and hopefully as time progresses and SWB receives new patches it will either gain additional tweaking functionality, whether in the form of a working console, or more in-game settings for example. For the moment, here's what I know about tweaking SWB:

Vidmode.ini

This .ini file can be found in your \Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars Battlefront\GameData\Data\_LVL_PC\ directory. You can edit it using Notepad or Windows Wordpad, but make sure to back it up first before making any changes.

1280 1024 0 0 1

In the Vidmode.ini file you will find a list of numbers. The first two numbers on each line correspond to a list of resolutions supported on your machine (width and height). I believe the next number is the level of supported Antialiasing for that particular resolution, and the last number is whether the resolution itself is supported or not on your machine (1 meaning supported, 0 meaning not). I am unclear as to what the middle number represents - it may well be the texture filtering mode.

I would appreciate feedback from users on what these numbers indicate as so far the only results from my experimentation are that by changing the last number you can enable or disable a resolution.

Server.ini

If you are running a dedicated server, you can add several command switches to your Battlefront server.ini file which will alter server settings, including an important setting which overrides the default maximum tick rate of 30. Note that you do not need to have the game to run a dedicated server, you can download and use this Dedicated Server Executable.

The following are all the game's command switches, and where known the descriptions:

The following commands have been added as of the 1.1 Patch onwards (See Patches Maps & Mods section):

/spawn -

/noaim -

/nostartupmusic - Disables the background music which plays when the game starts up

/loss -

/nointro - Skips the introductory logos when the game loads up

/ShowAllServers -

/ShowAllSessions -

Note that I will fill this list in with tested and known descriptions as readers provide feedback, so check back regularly and Email Me if you are certain you know what any of the blank commands do (no guesses please).

Command Line Switches

You can also use some of the commands shown above by inserting them into the command line for your Star Wars Battlefront icon. You can't use the default SWB icon though, as that points to the game's launcher. Instead, go to your \Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars Battlefront\GameData\ directory, right-click on the Battlefront.exe file and select Send To>Desktop to create a new desktop icon. Then go to this new desktop icon for Battlefront.exe, right-click on it and select Properties. In the Target box you may see the following:

/win - run the game in windowed mode for a performance improvement on low-end machines

/nointro - skips the introductory logos when the game loads up, speeding up loading time

/nostartupmusic - Disables the background music which plays when the game starts up, speeding up loading time and reducing memory usage

/nomovies - disables the blue wireframe background movies which play on the in-game menus. Saves memory and speeds up loading time and menu access.

/resolution [width height] - sets the resolution for the game.

/audiosamplerate [Rate] - sets the sample rate for all audio, and by selecting a lower value, e.g. 11000 you may improve performance at the cost of audio quality. Alternatively to ensure the highest quality set this to 44100.

I welcome any reader feedback which can provide additional tweaks for me to share in this guide with all of you. Please Email Me if you become aware of any such tweaks and I will test them and include them as necessary in this guide. This section is definitely a work in progress and should be expanded.

The next section brings the guide to a conclusion with some final tips and links to important resources.